


World Victory Tour - Meanwhile on Kodiak Island

by nanuk_dain



Series: Drift Compatible [55]
Category: Pacific Rim (Movies)
Genre: Drifting, Gen, PBC (Post-Breach-Collaps)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-02
Updated: 2019-04-02
Packaged: 2020-01-01 03:16:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 824
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18327524
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nanuk_dain/pseuds/nanuk_dain
Summary: Caitlin Lightcap discovers something that justcan'tbe right.





	World Victory Tour - Meanwhile on Kodiak Island

**Author's Note:**

> Let's have a wee look at the things going on elsewhere - I promise, it's going to be interesting ^_^ It's again just a short fic, but I hope you enjoy it. I promise that the next one is a lot longer :D

_PPDC Proving Grounds, Kodiak Island, February 24th 2025_

 

"That can't be right." Caitlin mutters under her breath and frowns at the screen.

She's currently reviewing all of Becket's drift surveillance data, trying to see if there's a pattern in common with the Stacker's - and there are some things that just can't be correct. Right now she's going over the first drift of Becket and Mori, and while it's still amazing what a high compatibility those two have without being a perfect match, that's not what's capturing her attention. She's focussed on the fact that there are spells of time, sometimes a fraction of a second, sometimes even half a minute, that the data shows 100% connection strength between Becket and Mori. 

And that _can't_ be right, because those two aren't a perfect match - their ghost drift faded completely after every drift, that alone is a sure sign. Only perfect matches ever reach 100%, though, she knows that from thousands of records. The first time it happens between Mori and Becket is at the exact moment when Raleigh went out of phase, and it lasted for the exact 6.7 seconds it took him to regain control of his drift. That is very strange, because it doesn't make any sense that they'd be at 100% while simultaneously going out of phase. It's a pity the data doesn't tell Caitlin anything about the memories the pilots experienced during their drift, maybe that would have given her a clue what's going on.

But maybe it's just that the data was corrupted somehow. There's a way to check that - this wasn't their only drift, after all. If it's a glitch in the recording, then the second and third batch of data won't show any periods of a 100% connection. So Caitlin quickly switches to the files of the second drift, when Becket and Mori defended Hong Kong against Otachi and Leatherback. It's a longer drift, too, so that means that she has more data to make sure. 

There, again. Caitlin stares at the screen, the frown of disbelief slowly transforming into one of confusion. She goes on to the data collected during the simulation she ran with Becket and Mori shortly before they left for the World Victory Tour. And again, the same phenomenon. It's not a glitch in the recording, that much in certain, because in all those drifts the sections with 100% compatibility return in sporadic intervals throughout the entire time the pilots are connected. There seems to be no regularity to the event, as if it just happens here and there that they jump to 100%.

Okay, this is weird. Caitlin decides to make sure that it's not a regular occurrence that she just never noticed before and goes over all the drift surveillance data she has of non-perfect matches. Chuck and Herc Hansen, the Wei Tang brothers, Herc and Scott Hansen, Stacker and Tamsin, even old files of Raleigh and Yancy Becket. The pattern never shows, there's not a single incident of a 100% link between any of the non-perfect matches. 

Now Caitlin is just confused. She scans the drift surveillance data of the Becket-Mori drifts again, and there's no doubt there's a pattern there. So what is different in their connection? It must be something related to those two specific pilots, otherwise there would have been a sign of the same phenomenon in other teams' drifts, but there isn't.

After staring at the screen for a long time, Caitlin turns around and quickly scans the newly established drift lab. She spots who she's looking for almost immediately. "Newt? Dr Gottlieb? Could you come over for a second?"

Dr Gottlieb looks up from the equation he's working on, scribbled in his messy handwriting on one of the huge blackboards he insisted on installing in the drift lab. Newton pops up behind the drift machine only a second later, his hair messed up from the headlamp he's wearing, smears of grease all over his face. They come over to her station and stand behind her. 

"What's up, Cait? Found something interesting?" Newt asks curiously and leans on the back of her swivel chair.

"I think so." Caitlins replies and motions at the drift surveillance data displayed on the screen. "What do you make of this?"

Caitlin watches them scan the data, and the confusion she feels is slowly coming to their faces, too. 

"Are you sure it's not an error in the recording?" Dr Gottlieb inquires, scepticism plain in his voice.

"No error. It's the first thing I checked." Catilin replies, not bothering to keep the confusion out of her voice. "Becket and Mori are the only non-perfect match that show this phenomenon, and it happens in _all_ their drifts."

"So it's accurate data?" Newton asks with the same shade of disbelief colouring his question that Caitlin feels herself. "What the hell is going on?"

Now _that_ is a really good question, she thinks wryly.


End file.
